SECDEF Orders Renaming of USNS Harvey Milk

The John Lewis-class replenishment oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206) conducts a replenishment at sea with the worldÕs largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), December 13, 2024. Photo credit: *U.S. Navy | Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Maxwell Orlosky*

According to numerous reports, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the renaming of USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206), a John Lewis-class oiler named after the Navy veteran and gay rights activist.

First reported by Military Times, a memorandum has ordered the changing of the name and the timing of the action, right at the beginning of Pride month, was on purpose, part of the Department of Defense objective of re-establishing a “warrior culture.”

Fox News reported that further name changes may be coming pending internal reviews.

Milk served four years in the Navy in the early 1950s, serving aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake as a diving officer and later as a diving instructor at Naval Station San Diego. He resigned at the rank of lieutenant junior grade, leaving service rather than face a court martial for being gay, according to Wikipedia.

Later, he became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In late 1978, Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were shot to death by a disgruntled member of the board of supervisors, according to Wikipedia. Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

The USNS Harvey Milk, the second in the John Lewis class of oilers, was officially named in 2016 and launched in 2021. The ship is operated by Military Sealift Command.